"Good science fiction doesn’t have safe spaces.” -Mark Pontin

Menu

Tag Archives: winter

“So Gray Eagle and Norita were like Romeo and Juliet.” Gola looked up at the frozen Falls, her partner Ash having convinced her to make the frigid hike.

“That’s what the legends say.”

She looked up, the mist of her breath wafting toward the fur around his eyes. “I love you when your romantic, but I’m freezing my tail off. Couldn’t you have told me the story at home?”

“With the clan living with us for the winter, I wanted to be alone with you.”

“That’s sweet,” she murmured, nuzzling against his warm neck. Then she nipped the tip of his ear making him yelp. “But I’m freezing my tail off.”

“You win. We’ll go. I’ll have to speak to the Evolutionary about making the next generation more resistant to cold. Let’s go home, Ms. Fox.”

“Whatever you say, Mr. Fox.” Then the orange-furred pair trotted down from the Falls.

I wrote this for the What Pegman Saw photo writing challenge. The idea is to use a Google Maps location/image as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 150 words long. My word count is 150.

Today, the Pegman takes us to Bridal Veil Falls, Utah (which I visited many years ago). I looked up the history of the Falls which told me, among other things, that it can be dangerous to hike there, particularly in winter.

I also found a legend about the falls which included the tale of two ill-fated lovers Norita and Gray Eagle. Click the link to learn more.

I didn’t want to write an “ordinary” romantic scene, so I made Gola’s expression about her tail more literal. Mankind has become nearly extinct, and after many ages, the climate of the Earth has returned to a pre-humanity state. To re-populate the planet, a human scientist known as the “Evolutionary” (which I shamelessly stole from the Marvel Comics character the High Evolutionary) has artificially evolved, among other species, a clan of foxes, making them more humanoid and giving them a much higher intelligence, along with, we can only hope, greater wisdom.

To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com (and submit something since it seems I’m the only one in the “room” so far).

“Lights again, Felman?” Arvid complained. “Don’t they know the more they change the world with technology, the greater the curse upon them?” She and her fellow elf were sitting invisibly on the tree’s branches.

“You know humans, Arvid,” rolling his eyes.

I wrote this for the Rochelle Wisoff-Fields flash fiction writing challenge. The idea is to use the image above as the inspiration to craft a small story no more than 100 words long. My word count is 97.

I actually re-wrote my story which originally was more along the lines of environmentalism and global warming, but everyone writes about that, so I was pretty disgusted with my lack of imagination. I changed it, but alas, the theme is largely the same. The more we humans try to “beautify” the world around us, the more we miss out on the natural beauty it already possesses. Forget the lights. Enjoy the ice.